I am only slightly up on solar. I look at the amortization time and the numbers always come out unfavorably. However, I did go on on a tour sponsored by a local solar dealer here, and picked up a few interesting pointers.

I came away thinking I might be interested in passive solar (basically black pipe on the roof) to reduce the load on the hot water heater. That will pay for itself relatively quickly. The other thing I saw was a surprise to the solar dealer. One of the clients had set up a water sprinkler on his roof where once a week he turned it on to wash the dust off the solar panels. He claimed a 20% increase in output when the panels were clean.

tanstaafl.